On April 3rd the 64th Grammy awards took place. Last year my prediction success rate was 3 out of 4; this year, however, I only correctly predicted 1 out of 4 of the main categories. Returning for his second year, Trevor Noah hosted music’s biggest night. The night was filled with fabulous fashion, jokes, and fantastic performances from the likes of Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, BTS, and more.  

The first Big Four award announced was Song of The Year. I had placed my guess on Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license” but the Grammy ultimately went to Silk Sonic’s “Leave the Door Open.” I am a big fan of Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak and did not consider them out of the running this year. However, I was very surprised that they had a clean sweep with their lead single. Perhaps I was too optimistic for Rodrigo, even though she still went home with three Grammys because Mars has not lost a Grammy nomination since 2014.  

Next up was the Best New Artist category. This was the only prediction that I felt confident about. Rodrigo, at 19 years old, is simply not doing it like any of the other artists that were nominated alongside her. Many of the other categories had worthy contenders, but Rodrigo’s instant global success made her a shoo-in for the prestigious award. Rodrigo gave a wonderful speech dedicated to her parents and spoke of how she told her mom at nine years old she would win a Grammy and look at her now.  

The Grammy for Record of The Year also went to Silk Sonic for “Leave the Door Open.” Mars and Paak did an iconic celebration dance with Paak saying, “We are really trying our hardest to remain humble at this point…but in the industry, we call that a clean sweep.” Paak referring to Silk Sonic winning every category their song was nominated for taking home a total of four Grammys. Paak left the stage saying, “We know a lot of y’all fans might be upset so we’re gonna get out of here before the internet gets talking.”  

Last up, was the night’s biggest award: Album of The Year. Many people were surprised by the winner, including the man himself, Jon Batiste for his album We Are. I, along with many others were not familiar with Batiste prior to the Grammy nominations, but he has been on the music scene for quite some time as the 35-year-old artist is the bandleader and musical director for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert with his band Stay Human. Batiste has been on Colbert since 2015 and has also collaborated with the likes of Prince, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, and Lenny Kravitz. Batiste was leading the night with the most nominations and ended the night with the most wins as well, leaving with five Grammys. 

Many people felt the Grammys snubbed some amazing artists and I would have to agree. Although not everyone can be a winner, especially with 10 artists nominated in the Big Four categories now, some certainly deserved to win. Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X both left the night empty handed despite having some of the biggest songs of the year.  

Now, this is not to discredit Batiste in any way. In fact, he was the first black artist to win AOTY in 14 years, but it is logical to wonder how some of the biggest pop artists with the biggest albums of the year did not win this category. I believe it’s likely to assume the Academy’s votes got split between pop-rap albums Montero and Planet Her and indie/alt-pop albums Happier Than Ever and SOUR, and thus the remaining votes went to We Are (sorry evermore) therefore taking the win.  

With such big competition this year, I was not surprised that my predictions did not go as well as last year. Most of the artists absolutely deserved the win so any outcome of the night would have been a celebratory one. The 64th Grammys was an entertaining and passionate show that despite any controversy over wins and losses secured it as an iconic award show that will continue for years to come.